Tamiya 1/35 M1046 Humvee Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

In the early 1980s, the US Army developed a requirement for a new multi-purpose vehicle to provide greater capabilities to the warfighter while simplifying the support requirements needed to keep the existing fleet of vehicles operating. At this point in time, the Army was still using the M151 Mutt, M561 Gamma Goat, M718 and M792 ambulances, and a number of commercial vehicles (CUCV) to fulfill its various missions. A common chassis and powerplant would significantly simplify the training and number of parts it took to keep these vehicles operational. So started the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) program.

AM General won the program and has produced over 190,000 vehicles in over 16 variants since the mid-1980s. Early versions of the Humvee were powered by 6.2 liter diesel engines while newer types received the 6.5 liter diesel. All Humvees are equipped with automatic transmissions to simplify driver workload. The M1046 variant is up updated TOW missile carrier version of the M998.

Tamiya released the M1025 armament carrier and followed this up with this M1046. This kit shares most of the same parts trees as the M1025, though it replaces one tree with two new sprues that are linked together during the molding process.

Molded in desert tan styrene, the kit is presented on six parts trees plus a single tree of clear parts and a set of four rubber (vinyl) tires.

What's different about this release over the M1025? This release replaces the machine gun options of the M1025 with the TOW missile sight, launch tube, and ammo stowage. The kit also has the unique thermal ID panels that were applied to allied combat vehicles during the combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This kit also features the winch-equipped front bumper. If you switched front bumpers with the M1025 kit, the winch-equipped armament carrier would become the M1026 and the M1046 with no winch would become the M1045. Confused? I guess we're not alone as the Army merged the designators for the winch and non-winch-equipped Humvees.

This kit has a one-piece body tub and nice detailing on the chassis. The wheels are separately cast and the tires are rubber. The interior details are very well representative of production TOW carriers and also provide nice options for the standard and deep water fording kit variants.

The slanted top can have its rear hatch positionable, the gun ring hatch is also positionable, and you have your choice of M2 or Mk.19 weapons on the ring.

Markings are given for four schemes:

• M1046, 1st Coy, 2nd Bn, 5th Marine Regt, 1st Marine Div, Iraq, Spring 2003
• M1046, 3rd Bn, 8th Marine Regt, KFOR, Kosovo, 1999
• M1046, E Troop, 9th Cav Regt, 2nd Bde Combat Team, 3rd ID, Iraq, 2003
• M1046, E Coy, 2nd Armored Cav Regt, Iraq, 2003

This kit is the a great build straight out of the box, and there are a significant number of aftermarket parts and conversions to render any number of Humvee variants that have appeared throughout the 24 year history of this vehicle.